Thetford Forest spring 2023

 A combined account of 4 distinct trips I made into Thetford Forest this year to look for target species after university term ended. Constant rain became sunlight, and physics became birdwatching. Each trip was in some ways crazier than the last, with the trip on the 27th March deserving a specific mentioned. 

Target species for this year were just Northern Goshawk and Firecrest. I was also interested in Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and perhaps a Woodlark or two. 

Day 1- 17/03/23

This was my first birdwatching trip since a trip down to Watford to see wood duck for purely sentimental reasons became a huge success. This was a wet, miserable day on which I went just because I wanted to. I lazily got to the usual goshawk site and walked around for a while. I didn't really think I would see them in this almost nonstop downpour. Along the way, however, I took my first-ever photos of a treecreeper, whilst an amusing woodpecker (the standard one) I located in the area was all frozen up and looking at the clearing nearby where goshawks display with very intense skepticism! Firecrest failed to show up at Santon Downham, and I got soaked today. 

Day 2- 19/03/23

Today was a much better day, but still cloudy and dull, and I was not impressed after I hauled myself all the way from Thetford to the goshawk site. Here, my ID skills gave out completely. I saw a pair of goshawks, beautifully displaying and circling in the distance, thought 'meh' and turned away, and continued looking for them. Quite a while before I would leave, I was searching the area all over, and saw a large hawk fly over the clearing. This hawk was legitimately massive. 

It turned out to be a female goshawk. I got lovely views, but for whatever reason thought it was a completely oversized sparrowhawk until many hours after the event, when I could no longer ignore the crucifix shape and huge, powerful neck. I only became satisfied 3.5 hours after I had started, after I encountered the male soaring high over the plantations, his soaring turning to deep, zombie-like wingbeats. 

I later observed him put on some absolutely insane displaying in the distance with some other people. This all despite sombre, cloudy skies. On the way back, I saw cranes at Lakenheath, and an albino pheasant. 

Day 3- 22/03/23

Today was another goshawk day. I initially planned to go after the woodpecker, but failed to follow even my own plans! As a result, I was back at the goshawk site. Walking around and seeing toadspawn in a deep puddle, I looked up for no particular reason to see this gigantic female goshawk hurtling straight towards me through the skies! She banked nearly overhead, and was lost over the forest. Sadly, I messed up the shutter speed from excitement. 

Excited, I proceeded to the clearing, and along the way saw two goldcrest chasing each other in the young pine trees here. I didn't have to wait long. 

A male appeared. An adult goshawk male, silvery-grey and with extended white feathers on the undertail region. He started displaying over the clearing, giving amazing but distant views. The silhouette looked not too dissimilar to the Bonelli's eagles I see at times in Spain from a certain angle. 

Satisfied, I hung around for a while longer. A while later, an entire swarm of birds of prey rose from the trees and began displaying, and among them rose a buzzard-sized hawk which I had trouble picking out from that flock and kept confusing it with the buzzard. It was the female goshawk. She then approached, and entered a shallow dive practically overhead. 

A female sparrowhawk was circling overhead as I left, my head slightly spinning, and went all the way to Santon Downham, where I tried and failed to see the woodpecker. As I returned to the road and prepared to go to Lynford, I found that I had burst my tire. Cycling with a flat tire after this was a nightmare, and the firecrest eluded me as well at the churchyard. 

Day 4- 27/03/23

Today was a nightmare which went horribly off the rails. I got the first train I could, and got as quickly as I could to Santon Downham, stopped by the bridge, and immediately heard the lesser spotted woodpecker- it was hiding in the trees southeast of the bridge. I didn't see it despite trying, and quickly made my way down to the classic location. As I approached, I heard another lesser spotted woodpecker, along the river. 

Here, I made my first massive mistake. Instead of stopping and searching for it and likely seeing it, I decided to press on for no particular reason. I saw some people looking at a tree, and approached to find Marcus Nash and some other people who said the woodpecker had just left into Suffolk. I had missed it by a matter of minutes! There are 3 lesser spotted woodpeckers along this river: the one I heard about 50-100m away from the classic position, the female Marcus saw, and the woodpecker I heard by the bridge. One of the ones I heard, according to a person I spoke to, was most certainly a male. As a result, it was a bit embarassing that I spent five hours standing completely still here and staring at the trees, harvesting nothing but the showy big brothers of the lesser spotteds, green woodpeckers, wrens and marsh tits. Still, no photo seems wrong, so here is a lesser spotted woodpecker from 2019: 

Here, I made a second mistake, even worse than the first. A crowd formed by this location, about 15 people, and I should have realised that such a gathering would deter any shy, quiet bird from arriving. As a result, because of this, I ended up missing the male lesser spotted woodpecker when it was heard calling later on, in the exact place I heard one today. I was just standing and observing- the only time a lot of people moved was when I detected a lesser spotted woodpecker drumming nearby, but we failed to see it. 

Eventually I realised ti was getting too late, and left, making sure to check everything along the way. This is the third time in a row I have completely failed to see this bird, and this time it was entirely my fault! I will be more intelligent the next time I visit for them. 

Tired from standing like that, I cycled all the way to Lynford, and began looking for the bird I wanted to see the most today- firecrest. I approached a stand of larches, and saw a goldcrest flitting about, as well as 2 kinglets at the top. I couldn't see which. Moving around, I noticed another kinglet, and managed to get some photos of it as it sat unusually still for me to see. 

It was the firecrest I had come for. It did begin jumping around at this point, but never enough to throw me off balance, and I got a series of nice images of the beautiful little bird as a result. 

It mostly kept in the shade of a large larch tree, but at one point sat right out in the open, in the sun's rays, and I took my best image of a firecrest today as a result.

I took a walk around the arboretum to see if I could see anything else, but mostly ended up pointing people looking for firecrest to the stand of larches, and failed to see any hawfinch as well. Still, a firecrest is a firecrest. I hope I will finally see the woodpecker in 2024, and the hawfinch in the autumn